Does anyone look further than the third page of Google when needing to find something? Not many do. In your industry, every competitor wants to be the first search result that shows up when customers look for important terms.
With an average of over 40,000 searches made per second, it’s obvious how ranking high is tied directly to the revenue your company earns every year. In addition, with the pandemic and unexpected changes in our national and local economy, people are spending more time not just online, but on their mobile devices.
SEO has gotten more sophisticated, evolving from keyword stuffing to user intent, and it’s more difficult to stay ahead of AI-based results that blend social, video, and page content. Investing in an SEO team and staying on top of consistent SEO strategies requires valuable time and money resources. However, the knowledge and work are essential to growing a solid and successful website and online commerce.
Whether you have a team in place, or are looking to self-manage your strategies until you get experts to help your business grow, let’s review some techniques that are new this year, to make the most out of the competitive SEO world we’re living in!
The days of optimizing keywords and building links on your pages may not be gone, but they are no longer the only things that matter. Google now uses experience as a factor in rankings. Defined as “A set of signals that measure how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page beyond its pure informational value.” More than before, people clicking away from your site right away due to poor UX really does affect your chances of ranking high. Simply put, is your website mobile-friendly? How about HTTPS secure? And is your load speed at the top level? If you haven’t made these optimizations a priority, it’s time to make it happen, because Google isn’t waiting. Here are some helpful links:
Check your site with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
Test your speed at Google’s PageSpeed Insights
Use Google Transparency Report to understand site security
“Waiting” is often considered a negative word, especially when used in the business world. And the truth is SEO is a long term and ongoing process. Experience has shown that most hacks offering quick SEO results, will probably only help for a short period of time. Generally, results don’t even begin until between six months to the first year.
By not establishing realistic expectations within the company, you run the risk of creating challenges that weaken confidence and prevent positive results. Be transparent. Share pertinent facts and information. It’s important to remember that it is estimated there are more than 1.7 billion websites on the internet and many are consistently trying to be the top search result. It takes time for Google to become associated with changes and trends that will affect your efforts with search engine results pages (SERPs). Success means creating habits and routines that make SEO a natural part of your weekly marketing strategy. If you want to see long term results, you need to activate a long term plan, and with continuous efforts you can grow your brand awareness -even as the market changes, your online presence will keep attracting new customers. As I like to say, “The day you plant the seed, is not the day you eat the fruit.”
Not really, but seriously, when Google revealed RankBrain many businesses wondered how it would change our SEO world. Google’s artificial intelligence already uses keywords and phrases to find all the related search results you’re looking for, and as we previously touched on, RankBrain uses algorithms to learn more about the experience of “how and why” people search, and apply those conclusions to future search results. This is why understanding your audience is critical to getting your products or services into the right customer’s hands.
Strategies to help embrace Google’s AI checklist include being a part of your local market’s “Best of” lists, running giveaways of your products or services, partnering with influencers, turning one-time purchases into subscriptions, creating content based on specific customer feedback, adapting video content, applying voice search focuses, and getting more reviews. These actions all increase your share of voice in the marketplace. And implementing your SEO as a 12 month plan will make your life easier and allow you to realistically achieve better results.
Google continues to make large strides in improving the quality of results for consumers, and it’s important to evolve and update your efforts just as much as they do. It is critical to a company’s bottom line that marketers create well optimized content, and organize work that results in engaging the audience. Evidence shows us that customers are more likely to buy when provided valuable information rather than just selling a product.
Yes, it will take time, and it takes consistent effort to achieve these goals, but the outcome is overwhelmingly worth it. Our incredible team of experts have your back. Reach out if you want to get a jumpstart on success!
